The Iliad of Homer

Rendered into English Prose for the Use of Those Who Cannot Read the Original

By Samuel Butler

Bibliographic Record

Contents

CAMBRIDGE: UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1898
NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 2011

Book I	The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles—Achilles withdraws from the war, and sends his mother Thetis to ask Jove to help the Trojans—Scene between Jove and Juno on Olympus
Book II	Jove sends a lying dream to Agamemnon, who thereon calls the chiefs in assembly, and proposes to sound the mind of his army—In the end they march to fight—Catalogue of the Achæan and Trojan forces
Book III	Alexandrus, also called Paris, challenges Menelaus—Helen and Priam view the Achæans from the wall—The covenant—Paris and Menelaus fight, and Paris is worsted—Venus carries him off to save him—Scene between him and Helen
Book IV	A quarrel in Olympus—Minerva goes down and persuades Pandarus to violate the oaths by wounding Menelaus with an arrow—Agamemnon makes a speech and sends for Machaon—He then goes about among his captains and upbraids Ulysses and Sthenelus, who each of them retort fiercely—Diomed checks Sthenelus, and the two hosts then engage, with great slaughter on either side
Book V	The exploits of Diomed, who, though wounded by Pandarus, continues fighting—He kills Pandarus and wounds Æneas—Venus rescues Æneas, but being wounded by Diomed, commits him to the care of Apollo and goes to Olympus, where she is tended by her mother Dione—Mars encourages the Trojans, and Æneas returns to the fight cured of his wound—Minerva and Juno help the Achæans, and by the advice of the former Diomed wounds Mars, who returns to Olympus to get cured
Book VI	Glaucus and Diomed—The story of Bellerophon—Hector and Andromache
Book VII	Hector and Ajax fight—Hector is getting worsted when night comes on and parts them—They exchange presents—-The burial of the dead, and the building of a wall round their ships by the Achæans—The Achæans buy their wine of Agamemnon and Menelaus
Book VIII	Jove forbids the gods to interfere further—There is an even fight till midday, but then Jove inclines the scales of victory in favour of the Trojans, who eventually chase the Achæans within their wall—Juno and Minerva set out to help the Trojans: Jove sends Iris to turn them back, but later on he promises Juno that she shall have her way in the end—Hector’s triumph is stayed by night-fall—The Trojans bivouac on the plain
Book IX	The Embassy to Achilles
Book X	Ulysses and Diomed go out as spies, and meet Dolon, who gives them information: they then kill him, and profiting by what he had told them, kill Rhesus king of the Thracians and take his horses
Book XI	In the forenoon the fight is equal, but Agamemnon turns the fortune of the day towards the Achæans until he gets wounded and leaves the field—Hector then drives everything before him till he is wounded by Diomed—Paris wounds Diomed—Ulysses, Nestor, and Idomeneus perform prodigies of valour—Machaon is wounded—Nestor drives him off in his chariot—Achilles sees the pair driving towards the camp and sends Patroclus to ask who it is that is wounded—This is the beginning of evil for Patroclus—Nestor makes a long speech
Book XII	The Trojans and their allies break the wall, led on by Hector
Book XIII	Neptune helps the Achæans—The feats of Idomeneus—Hector at the ships
Book XIV	Agamemnon proposes that the Achæans should sail home, and is rebuked by Ulysses—Juno beguiles Jupiter—Hector is wounded
Book XV	Jove awakes, tells Apollo to heal Hector, and the Trojans again become victorious
Book XVI	Fire being now thrown on the ship of Protesilaus, Patroclus fights in the armour of Achilles—He drives the Trojans back, but is in the end killed by Euphorbus and Hector
Book XVII	The fight around the body of Patroclus
Book XVIII	The grief of Achilles over Patroclus—The visit of Thetis to Vulcan and the armour that he made for Achilles
Book XIX	Achilles is reconciled with Agamemnon, puts on the armour which Vulcan had made him, and goes out to fight
Book XX	The gods hold a council and determine to watch the fight from the hill Callicolone, and the barrow of Hercules—A fight between Achilles and Æneas is interrupted by Neptune, who saves Æneas—Achilles kills many Trojans
Book XXI	The fight between Achilles and the river Scamander—The gods fight among themselves—Achilles drives the Trojans within their gates
Book XXII	The death of Hector
Book XXIII	The funeral of Patroclus and the funeral games
Book XXIV	Priam ransoms the body of Hector—Hector’s funeral